Self-Idealized
by Holy Song
Summary: A self-insert with a twist. It tells the story of seven people and what happened when they were mystically zapped into their favorite game.


**Chapter 1: What** _**Really**_** Happened…**

Yes, a self-insert. If you know me, which you probably don't (or at least not enough, anyway), then you would know that this was bound to pop up eventually. I've _always _wanted to be in Tales of Symphonia. Always. And, so, here it is!

* * *

It all started with a simple wish. Some stupid, half-hearted wish.

It was on the last day of school that my life was changed forever. A group of my best friends, Andie,Daria,Rachel,Cara, Caroline,and Alexis, had come over to spend the night so that we could celebrate the glorious summer vacation. Finally! Two whole months that we didn't have to get up at six thirty; two months without teachers nagging us to finish our work; two months without school. It was going to be awesome. Of course, we still had that stupid summer reading to do…oh, well! I'd just do it the last week of summer, just like always!

So, to celebrate the ending of the school year, we were just sitting in my room, playing our favorite game: Tales of Symphonia. I was so proud of my amazing persuasive skills; three years ago, in eighth grade, I had forced Andie and Alexis to play the game, watch the anime, read the FanFiction, anything that related to the game because, well, to put it bluntly, I'm a walking advertisement for Tales of Symphonia. It was my favorite game, and I had a big mouth, and I was _slightly_ obsessed with it—okay, more than slightly—so it's only natural that it would pop up in some—every—conversation. So, I got them completely hooked. Then, I found out that Daria, Cara, and Caroline had all at least heard of it, so now, here we were, playing together and taking turns with the controllers, like the bunch of crazed fangirls we were.

The window blinds were up and the window was propped open as far as it would go, letting in the warm summer air. It felt nice, especially as it mingled with the cool air from the air conditioner. Hehe…I wasn't supposed to let that happen. Oh, well! I also wasn't supposed to stay up until three o'clock in the morning, but there I was, sitting with my friends, playing Tales of Symphonia…at three in the morning. We were going for an all-night Tales of Symphonia "party".

A breeze rushed through the window, and I sighed at its warmth. I loved summer. It was just so…summer-y. I went to go sit on the windowsill. As I sat down, I noticed the moon. It was so bright, and as it gazed upon me, I felt comforted by its presence. I felt as though I were going into a trance. I just sat there, all thoughts of the game and my friends behind, watching the late night atmosphere with awe and wonder. Without any conscious thought, I felt myself falling…

Falling…

Falling…into a dream-like state. It was the most wonderful sensation I had ever felt. I felt weightless, as if I could fly right up to the moon and beyond the stars, become one with the night…

A sudden bright streak across the sky broke the spell, and I looked for its origin. There. It started right next to the moon. I stared at that spot, and sure enough, a few seconds later, another light flew across the heavens just to the right. It took me a moment to realize what that line of light had been, and when it hit me, a huge grin appeared on my face and my eyes lit up. It was a shooting star. At last, I had seen my first shooting star! And there was another! And another! So many of them lined the sky that it was as bright as noon. I decided to make a wish, because, well…heh, you never know!

"Hey, guys! A shooting star!" I said, not able to contain my enthusiasm. I jumped up and down, and they ignored it and walked to the window. "Let's make a wish!" I suggested, and they agreed.

"Yeah!" Andie looked to where the stars streaked through the sky. "I wish for Green Day," she said.

"Wow, big surprise." Alexis rolled her eyes. She was the "Genis" of the group—smart, nerdy, and sarcastic.I was, of course, a "Colette", and Andie was "Zelos".Caroline was our "Yuan", Cara was "Kratos", Daria was the "Sexy Predator Mithos", and Rachel, being the nerd she is, was "Raine". Yeah, I'd told them who they all were in freshman year at our high school, because I'm _that_ weird.

"What's your wish?" I asked everyone eagerly.

"Cold weather and pie," Alexis said in a deadpan voice.

Cara put a thoughtful finger to her chin. "I wish for…"

"WORLD PEACE!" Caroline cut in.

"Hey! I wasn't done!" Cara shouted. "Let's see…I want long, happy, fulfilling lives for all the people that I care about."

"Wow, that's nice of you," Daria said. "I wish for…lots and lots of money!" she then exclaimed.

"I want…to be able to travel through time and space!" Rachel said with a smile, and I rolled my eyes at her Dr. Who reference. It was bad enough that _I_ was obsessive with something.

"Okay, then…Well, I wish for something completely different. Guess!" I commanded.

"No." Andie grinned, and I glared.

"Fine. I wish for us all to be a part of Tales of Symphonia!" I said proudly.

"How come I knew that?" Alexis asked.

"Because it's obvious?" Cara offered.

I twitched.

Then, out of the blue, the inevitable, annoying screen popped up on my television. 'Game disc could not be read,' it said. Sigh. Stupid first disc, always messing up. I went over to the Wii, which I used to play my game because my GameCube was broken, and pressed the 'eject' button. Nothing happened. I pressed it again and waited longer. Still, nothing happened.

"What the…?" I asked, more to myself than to any of my friends. "Why isn't it popping out? Retarded Wii!" I felt the urge to Demon Fang the stupid thing, but that wouldn't solve my problem, even if I could actually do it. So I settled for compulsively pressing the 'eject' button over and over.

"What's wrong?" Rachel said as she walked back over to where my TV was situated. "Did you break it?"

"What? No! It just won't pop out!" I said, perhaps a little too quickly.

"Uh-huh…sure…" Caroline said sarcastically. Why were they always so evil?

"Hehe…that's what she said…" Andie smirked. Everyone groaned.

And then the lights went out. "What the hell is wrong, _now_?" I practically screamed.

"Haley!" Cara gasped in mock-horror. "You just dropped the H-Bomb! You should be ashamed!"

"No! It's not like that! I was just—" And then I couldn't speak. I was struggling to breathe as the air grew dense and more pressure built up around me. I couldn't see, hear, feel, or say anything. I was rooted to my spot.

I knew something was wrong when I felt myself lift from the carpeted floor. It was the same sensation that I'd had just moments before with the stars, yet it was different. Instead of a warm, friendly feeling, I felt cold, terrified, like this light was sucking the life out of my body. This was no trick of the eyes. It was really happening. I knew this, but my rational mind refused to accept that as an answer. Pressure built in the room, and breathing became unbearable. I felt as though the light were penetrating my body, reaching in and taking my soul out. I couldn't fight it, I was so weak…

_Is this what it feels like to die?_ I thought as I slipped into unconsciousness, and then I was floating in white nothingness.

* * *

My first conscious feeling was pain. I rolled over, trying to make myself more comfortable, and then I realized that I wasn't on my bed. Rather, I was lying on the floor. Strange…what was weirder was that it didn't feel like any of the floors in my house. This was made of stone, and the feeling it gave was foreign to me. Though I was extremely tired, I forced my eyes open, and was immediately shocked by what I saw.

It was a circular platform. Blue columns supported a non-existent ceiling, and a strange green vine snaked across the tops of the pillars. What really had me wondering was how the posts could stay upright, considering the fact that a glowing blue ball was what connected the two broken pieces together. And then there was the strange blue circle; in the middle of it was a giant glowing purple sword. _No…_ I thought. What was this? Some sort of hallucination? My eyes went wide. How could I be here of all places?

No. It had to be fake. I was dreaming. That was the only explanation. I couldn't possibly be there, could I? That was impossible…right?

But I'd recognize this place anywhere.

I saw movement to my left, and directed my attention to a small green pile that lay on the floor next to me. I saw a mop of frizzy hair and I gasped. "Andie…?" I whispered. The figure moved more at my voice, and it sat up, groaning as if in pain.

"Wh-what? Where am I?" she asked. Yep, that was Andie. But why was she here? I didn't normally dream about my friends, and I'd already determined this—extremely realistic—phenomenon as a dream, so she should not be here.

I pushed myself up onto my elbows and said, louder this time, "Andie?" She spun around and looked at me.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Wait…" After looking around at the unusual scenery, she turned back to me. "Where are we?"

"Uh…a dream?" I guessed. Honestly, I had no idea. I _thought_ that this was a dream, but it was so life-like, so…amazing. The detail on the floor, the flawlessly carved sword in the middle of the dais…even the decrepit steps leading to the warp pad were of absolute perfection. And, adding to that, I have never once had a dream in which I realized that I was dreaming. I would have liked to think of this as a dream, but…

"I've never had a dream quite like this…" a new voice rang. Both mine and Andie's heads swerved in the direction of the now-awakened Alexis.

"Well, what would you say it was?" Andie asked with an overbearing tone.

"We…can't rule out any possibilities…" I whispered so softly that no one heard. "We shouldn't worry about it. For all we know, it's just some crazy dream and you're just figments of my imagination."

"I know that I'm not a figment of your imagination," A mocking voice said, and I turned to see Cara sitting upright with her arms crossed over her chest.

"That's exactly what a figment of my imagination would say," Yet another new voice pointed out. Everyone present turned to face the final three of my friends, Rachel,Daria,and Caroline, the latter of whom had spoken, who were all sitting next to each other.

"Anyway," Alexis cut in, breaking us out of our stalemate, "what should we do?"

"I think," I started, "that we should play along." They looked at me as if I were crazy, which I probably was. Why did I say that? God, I was so stupid. Did I _actually_ believe that I was in Tales of Symphonia? Maybe I was more insane than I thought. "It may be just a dream, but everyone's innocent until proven guilty."

"Uh…Haley? That made no sense," Alexis pointed out.

"Oh. Well, what I meant was, even if it is just a dream—and a very realistic one at that—we should act like it is real and play along! Because that would be fun!" I grinned widely.

They stared at me. And then they stared at me again. After a long silence, Andie said, "Well, I guess we could. But it's so obvious that it's a dream. Because this place is _not real_." She put heavy accent on the fact that Tales of Symphonia wasn't real. I never liked when she did that. She was always so quick to remind me of their non-existence.

I ignored her and stood up. "Well, we should try to get out of here. The exit's this way." I waited for them to stand and then we headed toward the translucent bridge connecting the entrance from the altar. Once we had reached the bridge, however, I stopped. I knew that I wouldn't fall through, but it still made me nervous. What if the bridge suddenly stopped supporting me? I would fall into the bottomless pit below me! That would not be a good death. Then suddenly remembered something. "Hey, Alexis."

"What?"

"There's a see-through bridge that's over a bottomless pit. How do you feel about that?" I could barely keep the smile off my face. She went crazy over the laws of physics, which apparently did not apply in Tales of Symphonia.

"It's impossible. There's no way that bridge is anything but a projection. And the pit is not bottomless." She sent a pointed glare my way.

"Oh, really?" I stepped on the bridge and she reached out to grab me. Her attempts were futile, because I was standing on solid ground, which reassured us both.

"W-well…" she stuttered. "The hole's still not bottomless."

"Yes. It. Is," I said as sternly as possible.

"Fine, fine. Whatever you say." Then my friend walked ahead of me and the others. We all followed.

"So, you say that this isn't a dream, right?" Daria said as we walked along the bridge.

"Yes. Yes, I do. I've never dreamed this vividly or had control over what I did in a dream before." I looked up at her.

"Then…how did we get here?" she asked. I thought for a minute. How _did_ we get here? I tried to think back to what had happened before we woke up in the Tower of Salvation.

_The night sky…a meteor shower…a wish…white everywhere…_

Oh, God. Seriously? A stupid wish on a _star_, of all things, brought me into Tales of Symphonia? How cliché! I facepalmed. "We got here…because of my wish," I whispered. Unfortunately, this time everyone was close enough to me that she heard what I said. She looked down to me and gaped.

"S-seriously? We were sent here because of _you_? Dammit!" Andie yelled.

"And you were just calling me out for 'dropping the H-Bomb'. Such a hypocrite," I sighed.

"Wait. If you got your wish, then where's Green Day? I wished, too! And so did everyone else! We should get our wishes!" she exclaimed.

Rachel nodded. "Yeah! I want to be able to time travel!"

"Maybe we did get our wishes," Caroline said, cutting into the conversation. "But because we aren't on Earth anymore, or, more likely, dreaming, then we obviously wouldn't have them, now, would we?"

"…Dammit!"

We all sighed. I looked to my tall friends and asked, "So…are we there yet?" They promptly facepalmed. "Oh…wait. We are here." Because we had been busy talking, we didn't notice that we had reached the warp. "Let's go, then!"

I took a step toward the warp, but abruptly stopped when a chilling voice rang through my ears, sending chills down my spine. "Stop."

I slowly turned around, dreading the cruel face that belonged to the voice. And then I saw him. His white garment clung tightly to his thin but muscular body; his Cruxis Crystal glinted brightly in the invisible light source; and his piercing green eyes shot straight into mine. My throat constricted.

Yggdrasill.

"What are seven young girls doing in my precious Tower of Salvation?" he asked casually, as if he didn't even care. The look on his face said otherwise.

"Uh…" I stammered. My brain wouldn't form an intelligible thought, and even if it would, my mouth was suddenly too dry to even hope to speak.

"I should have intruders persecuted, I'll have you know." Again his gaze shifted to me, and it took all of my will to stay standing.

I tried to speak. "Y-yeah…I-I mean…yes, sir…" Beside me, everyone was silent. I wasn't sure what was running through their minds, but if they were half as afraid as I was, I could guess.

It was at that moment that a shimmering light appeared beside the ruthless leader of Cruxis. At first, it was beyond blinding, and it brought back terrible memories of how we got here. Eventually, though, it dimmed, and in its place stood the angel that I was, admittedly, obsessed with last year. "Ah, Kratos," Yggdrasill said as he greeted his comrade.

The stoic red-head bowed humbly and said, "Lord Yggdrasill."

"It seems I have found some pests wandering the halls of my great tower. Whatever shall we do with them?" he inquired, a light smirk resting on his face.

"Hmmm…well, whatever I say will not sway your decision, considering you've already made up your mind," Kratos pointed out.

"True, true. I just wanted your opinion." Yggdrasill chuckled. To any ordinary person that just happened to overhear, it would have sounded like a good-natured, hearty laugh, but from my viewpoint, it was sinister and threatening.

_Oh, God,_ I thought. _What's he going to do to us?_

"You may leave, Kratos. I'm sure the Chosen will need you any minute, now." With a wave of Yggdrasill's hand, Kratos bowed again and warped away with the same blinding light. "Now, to deal with you." He narrowed his eyes and a malicious smile came across his face.

"Wh-what are you going to—?" I started, but something inside me already knew what he was preparing for us.

"You came into _my_ home, so prepare to face the consequences!" Yggdrasill shouted as his hand began to glow.

"What is that?" Rachel yelled.

"Oh, God! No!" Alexis screamed, her face stark white in comparison to the dark clothes she wore.

"I can't believe this!" Cara cried from behind me.

"Good-bye," Yggdrasill said calmly as a ball of pure white mana erupted from his hand and came spiraling toward my group.

"Oh, shit!" Andie shrieked. They were the last words I ever heard.

The mana seemed to grow and wrap around us, engulfing us in its potent light. This was it. Who would have known that I'd die in a fantasy world?

Good-bye, Mom. I love you, Dad. And to all my loved ones, I'll miss you.

The mana closed in on us and hit us with the full force of what felt like a knife to the heart. I cried out in pain as I hit the ground and stopped breathing.

* * *

Yeah. That's it. I'm absolutely finished. No one came to my rescue, and I never made a miraculous recovery. Hey, the title was, "What Would _Really_ Happen", right? Well, that's what would happen. Honestly, do you think that a bunch of kids parading around in a world with tons of death and stuff would actually survive?

No, I didn't think so.

I wrote this because I wanted a self-insert, but I was sick of seeing so many Mary-Sues out there. So this is dedicated to all you Mary-Sues out there. But no offense to them, though. I respect them, actually. I know they're trying. Heck, even _I_ couldn't write a proper self-insert without me being a Mary-Sue. And you all _know_ how great of a writer I am (insert heavy sarcasm here). That's how this was born. I still have my original copy from my—terrible—insert. So I know that it's hard. I think that anyone with enough guts to actually put a self-insert up is pretty cool. Except you, AndieArmstrong (just kidding!).

Also, I'd like to point out that there will be no more chapters for this story, even though it will not say that it is "completed". The reason for this is that I want to fool people. Because I'm an evil sadist. So there.

But for some reason, I made the ending a lot sadder than I had originally intended. Hmm…well, we've established that I'm an evil sadist, so maybe that's why.

Oh, and I'm sorry to all my friends who were in this with me. You _said_ that you wouldn't mind dying. I remember asking you. And you all responded. I wanted to use the original idea of just randomly doing stuff, but then I figured we'd all die anyway in some way, shape, or form. So…this is what was produced. Thank you all for your ideas and such, but my mind works in ways I don't think anyone can explain. Also, I'm sorry if I wrote you in some way that you weren't happy with. I tried my best, though. Just flame me or something if you hate it. Okay?

Finally, I _**DISCLAIM**_ absolutely everything mentioned in this document. Even me. And my stuffed bear that isn't mentioned. But I got it for Christmas, and it's _TAMAKI'S BEAR FROM OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB_! Eek! Oh, how I love that bear. But that's completely irrelevant.

I think that this Author's Note is long enough. Or…too long, actually. So, bye, People of FanFiction! I love you all!


End file.
